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I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. This week it’s time to delve into 1973 where things are starting to pick up.

As per above I’m using two sources for my top ten lists. First is IMDB filtered by year and sorted by Popularity (doing this with User Rating, which would seem the sensible way to go produces … unexpected results). Finding reliable box office rankings is a bit tricky, so for 1971 thru 1976 I’ll be using the North America box office published on The Numbers. From 1977 I’ll be able to use worldwide box office, which will be a bit less geographically biassed. Either way, the goal here is not to provide definite statistics, but simply to provide a nominal list of top movies from the year, both contemporary and retrospectively, with which I can then embarrass myself by revealing how many classic works of modern cinema I’ve failed to see!

The Exorcist

I’d all but forgotten that The Exorcist was, just like A Clockwork Orange, essentially ‘banned’ in the UK for most of my childhood (and beyond). While it was never technically a ‘video nasty’ it was among a suite of movies that were denied video certificates (a requirement for home video distribution in the UK) and could therefore only legally be shown in cinemas. Combined with its reputation—courtesy of my parents’ generation—as one of the scariest movies ever made and it’s no surprise I was a bit underwhelmed when I finally saw it sometime around the turn of the century. It was fine but maybe, dare I say, a little dated and boring?

Nevertheless, the best things only improve with age and I did take it upon myself to give The Exorcist a fresh viewing just a few months back whereupon, I’m relieved to say, my view of it was completely transformed. While there remain, arguably, a few pacing issues, and the ethics of William Friedkin’s directing methods undoubtedly cast a dark shadow, I came away fully appreciating its status as a revered slice of cinema excellence. A large part of this re-evaluation is due to my love of seventies movies—something that has only grown over the last several decades—but it is also a damn good film, elevated by its intense third act and the incredible presence of Max Von Sydow (who I only realised very recently was aged up for this movie!)

In all honesty, it’s not a movie that’s likely going anywhere near my top ten but it’s definitely one where I’m already looking forward to future viewings.

Soylent Green

I think I’ve only ever seen this once, which is a lapse I should probably remedy. Inevitably, I knew the twist long before I saw the movie but that didn’t make it any less engrossing. The only scene I really remember is the one where they put Edward G Robinson to rest—and only because it reminded me strongly of a similar scene from The Parallax View (which we shall be discussing next year). Back on the watchlist it goes!

American Graffiti

Another film that I found perfectly enjoyable on first viewing but have never particularly felt compelled to revisit—although if I were to stumble across it again sometime I expect I would happily sit down and watch it through. It’s amusing to me that this is George Lucas delivering a nostalgic paean to a lost era of growing up in the USA but, for me at least, it works equally well as a memento of a bygone age of cinema and also an echo of the early years of my life that I spent exploring the history of film. Shame George Lucas never amounted to much, eh?

The Wicker Man

It was either in my late teens or my early twenties when I really, properly started to delve into horror cinema, particularly British horror. Some of this would have come from broadening my cinematic horizons. The rest from the fact that I was an Anne Rice devouring vampire fanatic, which inevitably led to a renewed enthusiasm for the Christopher Lee / Hammer Dracula movies, which itself opened all sorts of doorways into hidden pockets of british cinema and other essential horror avenues.

The Wicker Man didn’t get a UK video release until 1990 so my first exposure to it (and to so, so many other movie classics) would almost certainly have been via Alex Cox’s legendary and essential Moviedrome series. It was, in fact, the main feature of the very first episode, back in May 8 1988 (just a few days after my 17th birthday), and some internet demigod has even uploaded an old taped copy of Cox’s intro. I believe it was also one of the many films we looked at as part of my Film Studies degree about a decade later. 

As an avid movie collector my history with The Wicker Man is tightly linked to its history on home video, through the various restorations, rereleases and alternative versions that have come out over the years. I now have the 4k edition which, I think, includes three different versions of the movie so we must surely have come to the end of that particular road now.

It’s a film that I’ve admired and enjoyed over the years and have, eventually, come to adore—possibly because it reminds me just a tiny bit of the English yesteryear in which I grew up. Yes, this is, perhaps, my very own American Graffiti. And, no, we did not typically sacrifice virginal policemen to pagan gods back then. At least, not that I remember …

The Day of The Jackal

Another masterpiece. I recall watching this with my Dad at a very early age—most likely in the late seventies, when I guess it would have first aired on UK TV. Of course, one of the things I remember most vividly, it’s the climactic (anti-climactic?) ending … I’ll demur from adding spoilers, just in case. I also very much remember the twist and turns concerning the Jackal’s real identity. 

I’ve rediscovered the movie in more recent years and absolutely love the methodical approach it takes to tracking the Jackal’s process and the parallel efforts to track him down. A deliberately unshowy movie that grips from start to finish.

Magnum Force

The second best Dirty Harry movie by a very comfortable margin. It may not have Andy Robinson at his deranged best but it does have David Soul playing a dirty cop (ahead of his Starsky and Hutch days) and it also has Hal Holbrook, who is one of my favourite stars of seventies cinema that most people won’t have heard of. Nobody plays slightly shifty yet with gravitas in the way that Holbrook does.

Live and Let Die

Fun fact: I first watched this when it debuted on UK TV and due to a misunderstanding borne of my young age I spent several years believing it had been made specially for TV. I distinctly remember being both puzzled and fascinated by this—how and why would they make Bond moves for cinema and TV? Do they alternate? Bear in mind this was an era of TV specials (we could barely  keep Tom Jones off our screens!) so it wasn’t such an unusual concept for a ten-year-old.

Anyway—epic theme song, okayish movie. Right?

Westworld

When I was at school (secondary/high school) we had an English teacher who would set up a TV and a VCR in the assembly hall on the last day of each term and screen Westworld for us. I have no idea what the rationale for this was, and there was definitely at least one instance where me and my friends took advantage of the situation to skip the movie, sneak out of the hall and hang out on the playing fields instead.

Clearly these enforced, repeated screenings didn’t dull my opinion of the film one bit as I remember recording it off TV in later years and watching it repeatedly. There are so many moments that stick with me from this one: the twist of the surefire hero character getting killed off halfway through; the deliberate tonal shifts from camp to sinister, action to horror; the magnificent Yul Brynner; even the somewhat hokey effects. A fascinating, engrossing story about human hubris that knows enough about cinema to have some fun along the way.

Robin Hood

I saw this at the cinema while on holiday in the US, probably sometime in the early eighties. I remember that, but don’t remember much about the movie except it was perfectly enjoyable and there was at least one song I remembered from an LP I owned of Disney music when I was even younger. An echo of a simpler time when men were foxes in miniskirts and princesses were also foxes, but with far more clothing.

The Long Goodbye

I think my Dad first introduced me to this one and I remember revisiting it several times after that. I treated myself to a blu-ray copy (imported from the UK) several years back and have been waiting for the right occasion to watch it again—there’s a lesson here about passively waiting for things that never happen unless you make them.

You can’t help but love Elliott Gould in almost anything and here he is in his seventies prime, playing a 1930s character stuck in an age where even his cat seems to be several steps ahead. The Long Goodbye is more of an experience than a narrative and yet it also delivers plenty of twists, turns and drama along the way.

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The Unseen

Two films that I really should have seen by now but haven’t, even though they’ve both been on my watchlist for quite a while now: The Sting, Serpico. Let’s not dwell on my failings as a cinephile. I’ll get around to these two.

Other films that I possibly should have seen but have little intention of doing so: Papillon (which honestly sounds really boring and unfun), The Way We Were (which sounds like it has a far more interesting behind the scenes story), and Paper Moon. Actually I think I’ve seen Paper Moon. I vaguely remember watching it back home when I had a TV in my bedroom. But it could just as easily have been a completely different movie.

In the films-I’ve-never-even-heard-of category we have: Holy Mountain. Actually, having just looked it up on Wikipedia, I am of course familiar with Jodorowsky but mostly in the context of his infamous attempt to bring Dune to the cinema. I suspect Holy Mountain is best watched after dropping a couple of tabs—would a nice, fresh cuppa work instead?

The Unmentioned

1973 was a pretty good year for cinema with a number of other films that are worth mentioning for one reason or another, but I’m going to limit myself to four. Firstly we have to acknowledge Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Not a film I’ve watched that many times, but an absolutely iconic piece of cinema.

This was also the year that Bruce Lee was supposed to have made it big in the west, with the release of Enter The Dragon. A few months back my eldest son mentioned that he was keen to watch this and I realised I’d never actually seen it myself. A quick trip to JB Hifi to pick up the remarkable cheap 4k release and we were all set. It was glorious fun and it’s a great tragedy that Lee died before the film was even completed.

Moving into an entirely different genre and a personal favourite of mine: High Plains Drifter. I was introduced to this one in my twenties by a flatmate who did a great job of selling the supernatural aspect (of which I was completely unaware: I thought it was just another western). Indeed, it works excellently as a western, but overlaid with a vengeful and haunting tone that takes it to an entirely different place at times.

Finally, we can’t ignore Don’t Look Now (initially released as a double bill with The Wicker Man). Another film that I was introduced to through Moviedrome and later studied at university. A challenging film in some ways, I rewatched this not too long ago—possibly the first time I’d seen it on bluray, thanks to the Studio Canal restoration—and, boy, is it a gorgeous film. So much red.

I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. This week we delve into 1972.

With a couple of notable exceptions it looks like 1972 was not so much of a banner year for cinema. That being said, we’re certainly in an interesting transitional stage—budding blockbuster giants like The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure and more traditional titles such as What’s Up Doc and Jeremiah Johnson share the stage with subversive fare like Pink Flamingos, Deep Throat while Last Tango In Paris further blurs those boundaries. We’re definitely moving … somewhere.

Unsurprisingly, this is a year of movies that I remember my parents talking about, and directly introducing me to in a few cases. Despite that, it’s remarkable how few of the titles listed above I’ve actually seen. So let’s get into it.

The Godfather

I developed a passion for films quite early on in life, and it was in my early teens that I first discovered The Godfather, mostly on the strength of another film fan friend of mine raving about it. My strongest early memories of it include, somewhat bizarrely, Marlon Brando cavorting around with orange peel in his mouth but also, inevitably, key moments like Michael Corleone preparing himself to gun down Sollozzo and McCluskey, and Sonny at the tollbooth. Like many vintage classics, I grew up watching this one in pan-and-scan on VHS tape (likely copied second-generation from a rented copy—yeah, we did just fine without bittorrent back in those days!) so it’s been particularly satisfying to revisit The Godfather across its various releases. 

Most recently I had the pleasure of watching the recent 4k remaster with my eldest son (our second shared viewing, actually). It’s one of those movies that delivers more and more with each viewing—even now, decades after first watching it, I’m still relishing picking up the tiny details and subtleties, as well as admiring the masterful way the story is constructed. A worthy classic.

The Poseidon Adventure

This is a film that’s never going to end up on any of my “best movies ever” lists, but it still holds a very special place in my heart. I recall watching this with my mother around Christmas time (and Wikipedia confirms that it arrived on UK TV screens on December 23, 1979) so it already had that big event feel to it. Christmas plus blockbuster disaster movie? Perfect for an eight-year-old. 

We must have taped it as well, because I remember watching it more than once and while the spectacle of it all was unmistakably part of the fun, the bits I remember staying with me are some of the key story beats. The drama and dilemma of whether to stay in the ballroom where it’s supposedly safe, or make the potentially hazardous journey towards escape. The hero sacrificing himself right at the end so that everyone else he’s doggedly led to safety can live. The sheer toughness and bloody-mindnedness of Gene Hackman’s lead character (this was probably the start of my lifelong admiration for the actor). It may be a corny movie, it might even be a bad one, but the drama of it made a lasting impression.

I’ve watched it several times in the years since and have always enjoyed it. A particular delight for me is seeing Leslie Nielsen, about a decade before ascending to comedy godhood, playing the captain of the doomed ship.

Deliverance

Every time I think of Deliverance my mind is inevitably drawn to the thematically similar 1981 movie Southern Comfort—but we’re not here (yet) to talk about that one. My mother was the first person to tell me about Deliverance, and is quite likely the person who first encouraged me to watch it (this would not have happened in 1972 as I would have been less than two-years old at the time and definitely not capable of appreciating the subtle metaphor of anal rape being inflicted upon cappuccino-sipping city dwellers).

I’ll be honest and say this is not a particular favourite of mine, although I have nothing against it. That said, it’s been many years since I last watched it and I do plan to give it a rewatch at some point—mainly on the strength the What Went Wrong podcast (probably my favourite movie podcast) which recently did a deep dive into the making of Deliverance and gave me a renewed interest, and perspective, on it. Recommended listening, for sure.

The Getaway

This one is a slight oddity. I’ve only seen it for two reasons: I happened to catch the largely forgettable 1994 remake (starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger), and I later read the Jim Thompson novel (I was bingeing some of his work while on holiday around the time). I enjoyed the novel and it made me want to check out the [original] movie. Unfortunately, my overriding memory of the experience is a scene wherein a character gets shot at close range in the chest and it’s distractingly obvious that the prop gun has simply been ‘armed’ with a big daub of red paint on the end of the barrel to create the gunshot wound. I think some other things probably happened as well …

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The Unseen

Let’s get the first elephant out of the room: Cabaret. I’ve definitely seen parts of this, most likely while my mother was watching it one time on TV, but I’ve never properly watched it. I have no idea why because it sounds bizarre and fascinating. So, this is one that’s definitely going on the watch list. The rest of the unseen, not so much.

I’m a big horror fan, and an admirer of Wes Craven, yet I’ve never seen Last House On The Left so what’s up with that? Well, I have seen The Virgin Spring, the Ingmar Berman classic upon which this movie is (somewhat improbably) based. I’m also not a big fan of rape/revenge movies so, in a sense, I’ve probably seen as much of this one as I need to.

I’m slightly surprised to find I’ve also never seen Deep Throat, given it had a certain notoriety when I was growing up. I’m even more surprised to learn that Pink Flamingos came out as early as 1972 as I had the idea that John Waters was an eighties film-maker (his work doesn’t have a huge amount of appeal for me, so my ignorance is perhaps forgivable). 

I do recall my mother talking about What’s Up, Doc? with great fondness, and I have the feeling I watched it at some early age but I remember very little about it. I’m not certain it’s the type of film that would stand up to being viewed now, and I don’t recall ever seeing any ‘best comedies of all time’ lists. 

Rounding things up, Jeremiah Johnson and Lady Sings the Blues are, I’m sure, worthy titles but I’m currently in no rush to find out. The film I’m least familiar with here is Travels With My Aunt, which stars the late Maggie Smith so at least has that going for it.

The Tragically Unmentioned

As already mentioned, 1972 wasn’t particularly noteworthy at the box office so there’s not much else vying for attention in this final section. I’ll give a quick shout out to Frenzy purely because it was the number one film of the year at the UK box office (likely due to the legendary British director finally making another film set in England), but it’s a long, long way from Hitchcock’s best work. I do, however, have a lot of love for Sleuth, the twisty thriller starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. I’m already looking forward to my next viewing. No spoilers! 

It was, once again, a reasonably prolific year for horror, even if the Hammer era was on the wane. Among various titles released by the studio this year, we have the ridiculous but also better-than-you-think Dracula AD 1972. I’m not sure if any of the other horror titles released in 1972 were any better, but like many people I have a particular weakness for the Christopher Lee Dracula movies and will celebrate them at any opportunity.

And we’re done. Join me next time for a stroll through 1973, and don’t forget to add your own highlights from this year in the comments!

I’m blogging about the top ten (more or less) movies of every year since I was born. It’s gonna take a while …

Inspired by my friend Clay’s roundup of the top 25 movies of 1999 I’ve decided to blog about the top ten (sorta) movies from every year since I was born. I won’t be fully reviewing each movie because that would be ridiculous, instead I’ll briefly share my personal connection with the movie … including whether or not I’ve even seen it! Since biggest doesn’t necessarily mean best, I’ll be working from both the box office stats for the year and the IMDB rankings. In researching this project I’ve discovered that detailed box office records aren’t available prior to 1977.

My preference going forward will be to use the worldwide box office top 10 as reference, but for 1971 through to 1976 I only have access to the US data. If anyone can point me to a better source than the above listings then please let me know in the comments.

So, 1917 was the year I was born – no, wait—1971. Obviously I didn’t go to the cinema at all that year … at least as far as I know … but I’ve definitely seen several of its movies. Read on to find out what I’ve seen, what I’ve not seen, and what I think is also worthy of note. Let’s begin!

A Clockwork Orange

I have only seen this film once, and mostly out of curiosity. There is a myth that it was banned in the UK—caught up in the video nasties era—and, indeed, it wasn’t particularly easy to see it in the UK for many years while I was growing up (no bittorrent or Netflix back then!). However, the truth is that Stanley Kubrick himself withdrew it out of concerns that it would spark a wave of copycat violence. Naturally the film developed a significant sense of notoriety over the years until it was finally released in 1999 and proved to be … well, kinda boring in my opinion. I’ll revisit it one day but I’ve not felt particularly compelled to do so over the last 20 years or so.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

This is one of those films you grow out of and then grow back into again. For me, the main appeal comes from my enjoyment of Gene Wilder’s work and he makes, perhaps, the perfect Willy Wonka, adding just the right balance of charm and menace (oh, I wish we’d had the chance to see him playing an out and out villain). Meanwhile, the saccharine sweetness of the production is nicely offset by the low-level sadism of Roald Dahl’s storytelling. It’s not necessarily a film I go out of my way to watch, but it is one I’m always happy to revisit.

Summer of ‘42

A classic coming of age film that I recall watching at some point in the early eighties when I, too, was coming of age. I remember very little of it, but given it appears in both top 10 lists above perhaps I should give it a second look one day. I’ve only included it in this section because, for some inexplicable reason, the final shot of the movie has always stayed with me. I suspect, if I ever watch it again, I’ll discover that final scene is nothing at all like the one in my memory.

The French Connection

One of the most fascinating things (imo) about cinematic decades is that the first few years typically mark a stage of transition. In the case of the 1970s we see the staples of yesteryear (musicals, melodramas, westerns, historical epics) finally giving way to the more introspective era of New Hollywood, fuelled by auteurs like Kubrick, George Lucas and William Friedkin. In truth the era began in the late sixties, but it would be during the seventies that these directors would come to redefine modern cinema (and we’ll be seeing lots of their efforts in future posts).

For me The French Connection—gritty, downbeat and with a commitment to realism that few films (if any) had dared tackle before—is one of the first real seventies movies. It’s indelibly of its time but also an ageless masterpiece. One of those films I immediately look forward to revisiting again after every viewing.

Diamonds Are Forever

For a long time this was one of my favourite Bond movies, likely because it brought the same epic, yet tongue in cheek sense of the Roger Moore movies (which I grew up on) and yet felt like something of a discovery given it came from a previous era. It still has its charms but is so hugely problematic in so many ways that I suspect I may never be able to watch it again.

Recently I discovered that the very memorable Mr Wint, one of the two idiosyncratic henchmen that pop up throughout the movie, is played by Crispin Glover’s father. Which makes a lot of sense in retrospect.

Dirty Harry

Not quite as groundbreaking, perhaps, as The French Connection, but still a long-time personal favourite of mine. It’s a fascinating film to watch these days given that it’s essentially advocating for fascism and presenting an early version of Republican anti-government talking points (note how government bureaucracy and complacent senior police are presented as constant obstacles in Harry’s quest to save the public from a deranged serial killer). I imagine it’s popular viewing for supporters of the January 6th insurgency.

Regardless, it’s also a classic work of cinema with Clint Eastwood (note: Trump supporter) creating his most (second most?) iconic character, and Andrew Robinson (long before his Deep Space Nine days) portraying one of the most genuinely terrifying and disturbing villains in cinema history.

Get Carter

I had the pleasure of rewatching this in glorious 4k not too long ago. It’s a film I’ve long respected, having probably watched for the first time back in the eighties. However my last viewing delivered a far more profound appreciation for why this movie has so many admirers. It’s got a great story with an almost unique aesthetic, but it’s Michael Caine who really makes this an experience to treasure. I love a good anti-hero, and Jack Carter is a complete bastard of one (he even makes Harry Callahan look like a pussycat), and yet you stick by him for the whole bloody slog.

THX 1138

George Lucas doing sci-fi before Star Wars, and it couldn’t be more different. I’ve only seen this once, but it fits very nicely into that specifically seventies era of science-fiction which eschewed the shiny space-ships and slimy monsters and, well, looked ahead to how we could screw things up all by ourselves without the help of martians or things like other planets colliding with ours.

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The Unseen

I’ve not seen every film in the two lists above, and in a few cases I’ve seen them but remember so little of the experience that I can’t in good conscience include them above.

In this latter category are The Last Picture Show, Straw Dogs and Klute. I should probably (re)watch The Last Picture Show properly one day, but I’ve never felt particularly compelled to do so. I’m even less interested in Straw Dogs, which I suspect is probably just going to be unpleasant and exploitative, and I’m generally not that interested in the revenge-porn genre anyway.

A strong exception is Klute. I’m a big fan of Alan Pakula’s movies, and this one has been on my rewatch list for quite some time … I might even get onto that soon and update this post when I do!

I enjoy a good musical but Fiddler on the Roof is one I’ve never been that interested in. I remember my mother watching it on TV when I was very young, and making me watch Topol (who was great in Flash Gordon!) singing “If I Was A Rich Man”. That’s enough for me. 

As for Bedknobs and Broomsticks, I read the synopsis before writing this and it honestly sounds quite interesting. But I’m probably still not going to watch it.

The real surprise for me is two films that I’ve literally never heard of. I don’t claim to have heard of every film ever made, but I’m impressed that a film can be the number one movie in the US in the year of my birth and still completely escape my awareness. Billy Jack sounds like an interesting piece of cinema history, albeit with a similar message to Dirty Harry, but rather than have me talk about it just give the wikipedia page a quick read. 

In a similar vein, Melvin Van Peeble’s delightfully titled Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (how can I never have heard of a film with that title???) was another independent movie that struggled to find distribution but ended up doing well enough to land in the US top ten for the year. I gather it kickstarted the blaxploitation genre, so it definitely earns its place in cinema history … and is probably worth a watch for that reason alone.

Minor Omissions

Without being too exhaustive here, this year also saw the cult favourite Harold and Maude (which I’ve never seen) released alongside Nicolas Roeg’s classic Walkabout (which I have). 

Two of my [other] favourite films from this year include the science fiction drama The Andromeda Strain which somehow manages to be slightly old school and feel like it’s doing something different with the genre. It was also a very good year for horror, albeit seeing the slide of Hammer studios into its later, more exploitative fare. At the same time there were other studios and film-makers keen to make their stamp in the horror genre, and one of my favourite movies from this era is the somewhat bizarre, but very British folk horror title Blood on Satan’s Claw (which has just seen a 4k release!)

So, what are your favourite films from 1971?